Jenny Martin is a Cherokee Nation Citizen and of Irish and Italian descent. She currently works for Lummi Nation Health Center in the Diabetes Program as a Care Coordinator and Healing Spirits Gardener. She attended Northwest Indian college and received a BS in Native Environmental Science with a focus in ethnobotany and Indigenous knowledge systems. After college, Jenny moved to Galway Ireland to pursue an MA in Culture and Colonialism from University of Galway. Her Graduate studies focused on Indigenous intellectualism and decolonizing concepts of land. Her favorite part about working at the Lummi clinic is the ability to talk with community members about traditional plants and medicines and how they can reconnect us with culture. She is also a Certified Peer Counselor and Mindful Eating Meditation teacher.

Jenny strongly values education and building relationships between people of different cultures and embraces opportunities to work with peoples of all ages, both in and outside academic circles. She teaches monthly in Oregon Health and Sciences University’s Rural Health and American Indian/Alaska Native student block, works closely with student and faculty groups at Western Washington University around Tribal issues and healthcare and is part of the Bellingham Food Bank Board of Directors to increase food access in Whatcom County.  She also loves to read, cook, do jigsaw puzzles and write stories.